CH12: Reluctance

"It's been a whole week!" Jade whined. She had tried everything she could think of, but not one attempt to pass the guards' test had been successful. She had studied the information binder over, and over again, scrutinizing every minute detail, but there was nothing that she could find in it that she had not been doing. "How did you get in on the first day?" She asked Alex, hoping that he'd divulge his method of entry.

Alex glanced up from his work and pensively stared out the window that looked over the streets of Beijing from high above. "That's a secret," he finally said, winking furtively.

"I've read the guidelines backwards and forwards. I've practically memorized it down to the punctuation. What am I missing?" She leaned closer to him, giving him a mournful puppy dog look in hopes of breaking down his defenses.

"Looks, charm, style... Basically, everything I have," Alex deflected with a joke. Jade pouted unhappily. She thought that Alex was getting back at her for the few minor practical jokes she had played on him.

"Deed you vant to ve lyeft alone?" Alexei asked in his strongly Russian-accented voice, noticing their intimate stance. He was Alex's roommate for the trip. He was reclining on his bed and studying some photos he had taken. "I could alvays go and talk to Yosyef. He might find thees eenteresting."

Jade's eyes widened in realization and then she glanced demurely at Alexei."I think me and Alex could do with a little alone time," she said flatly.

"... Yes, I go now..." Alexei looked uncomfortable as Jade watched him. He took his papers and left Jade and Alex alone.

"It's just you and me now. We both know you haven't even looked at the binder, so spill," Jade demanded.

Alex looked around to make sure that no one else could be listening. When he was satisfied that they were truly alone, he rolled up the sleeve on his right arm. "The eye of Ra, overlaid on a pyramid. It's the mark of a magi," Alex explained seriously. "The magi are a secret society dedicated to keeping certain magical artifacts safe. I was made the leader of the magi when I was a kid because of the manacle - at least in name. The real leader is the man who trained me and taught me how to use it. They were really strict, so I learned my manners pretty fast."

"You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" Jade examined his tattoo. "So what was I doing wrong?"

"As foreign guests in the Forbidden City, we are actually lower than the servants. You keep looking the guards in the eye. You should watch their feet instead. It shows respect, and you can tell by the way they hold their weight if they're going to attack or not."

Now that he was awake, there was no reason not to release Syaoran from the hospital. He was just waiting for the doctors to finish the paperwork. He looked over at Sakura. He couldn't resist reaching out to touch her hand. At the moment of contact, Sakura flinched violently away from him. He hadn't expected that.

At first, he felt angry. Because of Tomoyo and the guy she was with, he had been forced to do something unforgivable to Sakura. That anger quickly turned to self loathing. It was his weakness that was at fault. He should have been strong enough to resist the spell in Tomoyo's song. He would have been strong enough if not for his addiction - but then that was just another sign of his weakness.

"Sakura," he tried to blink away the tears that were forming in his eyes. More weakness, "I'm sorry."

Sakura's eyes softened. "I didn't mean to..." She knew he had been under the influence of the spell, but she couldn't shake the feeling of him grabbing her like he did. She knew he would never do anything like that on his own. She reached out to take his hand. Her hand was trembling.

"You don't have to force yourself," Syaoran said sadly. He knew he deserved it. He'd already tainted her enough. The things he had wanted to do to her body - still wanted to do - were despicable. He couldn't allow himself to fail again.

"It's what I want to do. What happened there scared me, but you're not the person you were then." She grabbed his hand and squeezed it. Syaoran held her hand tightly, afraid that if he ever let go, he'd lose her forever.

"I'm not ready yet," he admitted. "When we get back, you should handcuff me again."

Meiling sat on her futon and waited alertly. She could not sleep. There was a knock at the entrance. She got up and stealthily crept down the dark stairs. Peeking discretely through the glass, she saw Sakura standing outside, alone.

Meiling was glad that it wasn't Ryuuten again. He had come by three times since the dance, but she couldn't face him. She had lost control and hurt both him and Syaoran. It wasn't what she was supposed to teach him, but he shouldn't have tried to kiss her when he had known perfectly well that they were just supposed to get to know each other.

Sakura knocked again and Meiling let her into the building. Meiling led her upstairs and Sakura stood in the middle of Meiling's room dumbly for a few seconds before asking, "Do you mind if I stay here for the night?" Last year she would have gone to Tomoyo's house, but that wasn't an option anymore. "I need some time away from him."

Meiling nodded and sat down on the futon again. She gestured for Sakura to join her. "Where's Syaoran?" she asked.

"He's handcuffed to his bed. I just couldn't stay with him tonight." Sakura's eyelids drooped sadly as she glanced sullenly at the floor.

"What happened to you to at the dance?" Meiling asked, carefully keeping her tone neutral. She wasn't used to this sort of thing. She didn't know what the right way to act was, but decided that it was best to listen to Sakura's problems.

"I know it wasn't his fault..." Sakura started apprehensively, "He was being controlled like everyone else, but every time he moves to touch me, I'm afraid."

"What is there to be afraid of?" Meiling asked indignantly.

"Nothing!" Sakura replied confidently, "But, I can't help it."

"What did he do that you haven't done before? What scared you?" Meiling once again tried to be caring in response to Sakura's suffering.

"It wasn't what he did. I... didn't really mind that much," Sakura blushed and hugged a cushion to her face. "It just wasn't him. It was like someone else was touching me using his body. I'm afraid of what I'll see next time, that I'll look into his eyes and it won't be him looking back at me."

"You broke the spell already, so there's nothing to be afraid of." Meiling placed a reassuring hand on Sakura's forearm.

"I know that!" Sakura snapped. "I just want to feel safe again. The night I went looking for him because he hadn't come back from looking for me, he saved me. He killed three men, but I had no problem petting him the next time I saw him. He was a bastard sometimes, but he always made me feel safe, always protected me. This time... He was the one hurting me."

"You didn't run away when he was controlled by his drug cravings and tried to hit you. What makes this different?"

"I don't know! What pisses me off most was that he didn't care! He didn't beg, he didn't try again, he just gave up after the first try." It made her feel like she wasn't worth fighting for.

"What did you expect? He loves you, but you're afraid of him. What would you do if it was the other way around?"

"I'd keep trying... I wouldn't ever give up."

"No. That's what you want him to do. You would be hurt. You'd run to your friends and cry, and then you'd wait until he stopped being afraid. You wouldn't risk scaring him away more because that one rejection was too painful to bear, and you couldn't take another one. Suck it up, get over yourself and go to him." Meiling encouraged Sakura more harshly than she had intended.

"But what if-" Sakura whimpered, shrinking back from Meiling.

"If you're that afraid of what he might do, then just hop on and ride him like a horse before he gets a chance to try anything. He's tied up now anyways, and he won't complain." Meiling said spitefully.

Sakura stared at Meiling in shock. It was not the advice that she had been expecting. She was used to getting advice from Tomoyo, who would recommend solving the problem through some form of diplomacy, but Meiling was confrontational. Her approach would probably work, but Sakura wasn't about to take that bit of advice. Syaoran had already discussed it with her. He wanted to wait and so did she. She wasn't going to force him into it to fix her own emotional problem.

Sakura couldn't brood over not having advice from Tomoyo instead of Meiling. Tomoyo had chosen to end their friendship. It upset her, but she had learned to live with Tomoyo's anger. One day, maybe the hatred Tomoyo felt would dissipate and they could be friends again, but for now, Sakura could only do her best to cling to the friends she still had.

"So what happened between you and Laishi-san?" Sakura changed the subject.

"I warned him that we were just going as friends," Meiling answered. "It took a bit of convincing though."

"Remind me to never disagree with you on anything," Sakura said as she remembered the feeling of blood spattering onto her face. Suddenly, Meiling became the last person she wanted to discuss problems with and she decided to go to sleep.

A figure dressed in black climbed over the wall of the Forbidden City. The guards, though vigilant, did not see her movements. It was too easy to sneak into the treasury by timing her movements just right. They hadn't noticed her before when she had scoped out the place. They wouldn't catch her tonight either.

The treasury was full of valuable objects. Some were statues of gold. Some were jade idols. Some were simply gemstones or coins. None of those interested her. Sitting in a velvet lined box was the object she had come for. For the most part, it looked like a block of wood that had been painted red, but inside that block was a jade plate - the imperial seal.

The box was just sitting there. No cameras. No laser grid. No guards. It almost seemed too easy. She reached out and grabbed it. She should have known better. A ring of red energy appeared out of thin air. It surrounded her wrist and refused to release her. The door was closing on its own.

"Yu mo gui gwaai fie di jao." The thief held a dried salamander over the ring. The salamander began to glow a bright green. As she continued chanting, the glow of the salamander tried to overpower the red ring that held her. It wasn't working. The door finished closing with a loud thud. The panels in the walls spun, revealing guards that had remained hidden behind them.

"Looks like I have to do this the hard way," the thief sighed.

A loud explosion rocked the city of Beijing. The hotel that the Li expedition was staying in was close enough that all the students could see the fire that blazed in the center of the Forbidden City.

"I wonder what happen," Si Quan said to Jade, her roommate.

"It looks pretty bad," Jade replied. "I hope no one was hurt."

"They will no allow us to return," Si Quan said sadly. "We were learning much."

"I didn't even get past the gate," Jade sighed and lightly kicked the carpet.

"You may help Alex. He did find many thing."

"I'd rather have something of my own to work on," Jade replied.

The thief hid in an alley. It had been a close call. If things had been any more difficult, she would have been captured. Removing the binding spell had been hard enough. Normal means had not worked.

First, she had needed to shape shift to escape the binding spell. Next she had had to blow up the building, and live through the blast. After healing her injuries, she had to use super speed to escape the guards. It was way too much. All that magic was traceable. Luckily, she had an alibi.

Using the snake talisman, she snuck around to the back of the hotel. Jade was there waiting for her.

"We're good with the alibi?"

"Half the hotel knows that I was inside when you blew everything up. What were you thinking?"

"That I didn't want to get caught," the thief said, removing her mask to reveal that she was an exact duplicate of Jade.

"Neither do I." Jade replied, revealing half of the tiger talisman. "So let's get back together before everyone finds out that I have an evil twin.

The thief took out her own half of the talisman and joined it to Jade's half. After a flash of light, there was only one Jade who stood there with both the tiger talisman and the imperial seal.

Sakura woke up to the sound of her cell phone ringing. She was cuddled up to Meiling in the much too small bed.

"Moshi-moshi..." she said, tiredly rubbing her eyes.

"I just wanted to let you know that we're coming back a little early. There was a bit of a disturbance last night," her father told her.

"Hoee...?" Sakura asked, not yet awake enough to process what was being said.

"I'll explain everything later. The plane's landing in an hour if you want to join me for breakfast."

"Okay, dad. I'll see you soon." She lay back down and flipped her phone closed. A minute later, it began to ring again.

Sakura was about to fall back asleep when her phone rang again."I'll see you soon, don't sleep through breakfast." It was a text message from her father.

"What's going on?" Meiling was awake now. Unlike Sakura, she looked alert and ready to start the day.

"My dad's coming home early. Something big happened."

"How big?" Meiling asked.

"I don't know," Sakura said. "It was big enough to cancel the next week of exploration, but not enough for him to call immediately." Sakura stretched. She had slept a lot more than usual. The elders would probably scold her because she had skipped the morning lessons. She wasn't in the mood for it.

Sakura sat in a private booth at a fancy restaurant. Even this early in the morning, all the waiters were wearing fancy tuxedos and carrying food on gilded gold trays. The furniture was large, darkly-stained wood pieces that were carved with floral patterns. The walls were sectioned off by tapestries surrounded with velour drapes. It was the most expensive place that Syaoran had ever taken her and she did not know why it had occurred to her that she should invite her father to eat there.

When Fujitaka arrived, he looked as notably uncomfortable in the setting as Sakura had felt the first time she had come here.

"This place seems a bit expensive." Fujitaka gazed around at the décor, still standing.

"I'll pay," Sakura told him. "I was the one who suggested we come here - I have a lot of money saved up thanks to the allowance they're giving me."

"If you are sure." Fujitaka apprehensively sat down.

"Syaoran brought me here a few times. The food is really good."

Fujitaka picked up a menu and scanned the list of food. "There aren't any prices listed."

"I don't really know what it costs either. Syaoran always paid for everything." Sakura briefly wondered if Wei had thought to unlock him long enough to use the washroom.

They sat in silence as Fujitaka perused the menu. Sakura spent the time looking at the tapestries. The one directly ahead of her depicted a battlefield. In the foreground were many Chinese soldiers. Most of them wielded pudao, the traditional Chinese polearms, though some wielded dao, swords with curved blades that were still the standard for Chinese swords. They stood before the gates of a large castle with a lone defender. It seemed like insurmountable odds if one did not count the snaking body of the dragon that dipped in and out of the clouds above the mansion. The dragon's head breathed a wall of flames that kept the siege at bay.

"The usual?" A waiter's voice pulled Sakura's attention away from the tapestry. She stared blankly at the waiter for a moment.

"Yes please," she said and the waiter immediately left to convey her order to the kitchen. It seemed strange to her that there would be a usual breakfast for her. The few times that she had eaten at this particular restaurant, it had been for lunch or dinner. She wondered what sort of meal she would be getting.

"Weren't you going to order?" Sakura asked her father.

"I already did," Fujitaka chuckled, "You were too busy examining the tapestry to notice."

"I'm sorry. Was I ignoring you?"

"Not at all. I find these tapestries to be quite fascinating myself. They really should be in a museum instead of a restaurant. Some of them are at least five hundred years old by the look of them. They must be well cared for here."

"Something about that one seems familiar to me, though," Sakura nodded towards the one she had been examining. "I haven't sat in this booth before though."

"It is a rather striking image. The five toed dragon turning upon the emperors soldiers at the command of a single man. It's a classic example of triumph over insurmountable odds."

"I thought that the dragon was on the man's side the whole time."

"Traditionally in Chinese mythology, the five toed dragon is the imperial dragon that serves the emperor. Either that man is the emperor and his troops have turned against him, or more likely, he is another man who is able to control the imperial dragon, perhaps even a depiction of the mandate of heaven passing on to a new ruler."

"Speaking of the emperor, did you learn anything interesting at the Forbidden City?" Sakura asked, finally broaching the subject that was the purpose of their breakfast.

"It was an enlightening experience," Fujitaka replied, "Though the gem on the Emperor's scepter was rather bright. I thought that he might be planning on blinding me with it, the way he kept waving it in front of me. I don't think he got the reaction he was hoping for."

"You aren't in trouble are you?" Sakura asked worriedly. She doubted it. If he had truly angered the emperor, he probably would not have returned at all.

"No, the emperor was quite hospitable. He made sure we had everything we needed until last night - someone broke into the treasury. They blew up the entire building. We were asked to return home until --"

"Just a minute," Sakura cut him off and took out her phone, dialing Syaoran's room.

"Li here."

"Syaoran, it's me." Fujitaka watched with concern furrowing his brow as Sakura was consulting with Syaoran. The connection to Syaoran was obvious; he was the funder of the expedition after all.

"Think you could - "

"I'm at breakfast with my dad. He just told me that someone blew up the Emperor's treasury."

"Did they take anything?"

"Was anything taken?" Sakura repeated Syaoran's question to her father. She held out the phone so Syaoran would hear the answer.

"We don't know, we never got a chance to ask questions," Fujitaka responded. "They sent us all to the plane a few minutes after it happened." There was something definitely off about the situation. He had assumed that the Emperor's men had already contacted the Lis since the plane had been ready for them.

"I'll call you back," Syaoran said to Sakura and hung up.

"What was that about?" Fujitaka asked. Sakura was acting strangely. Perhaps she also noticed the odd way in which the incident was handled.

"The Emperor is probably the only person in the country with as much influence as the Li clan does. If he starts moving without consulting us, things could get... uncomfortable." Sakura did not really know what would happen if the two forces clashed.

The word 'us' struck Fujitaka. She was not yet married to Syaoran, yet she already considered herself part of his family. He could still recall her begging him to cancel the engagement, but now she acted like her relationship with Syaoran was destined to be and her first thought upon hearing that there was trouble was to call Syaoran and inform him. He was more uncomfortable than ever with the current arrangement.

"I am sure that the Emperor just wants to keep things as quiet as possible. It would look bad if word spread that something valuable had been stolen from him." Fujitaka assured her, "Nothing bad will happen."

Jade stood in the middle of the thickest part of the woods in the park. It was the most private place she could find. If any of the others saw what she had with her, they would know who had broken into the treasury of the Forbidden City. She couldn't let anyone know.

Jade's phone rang.

"Hello," Jade said. No name or number was displayed to tell her who was calling.

"A couple hours ago, I was woken up and told that our satellites detected an explosion. Please tell me that you got the item." A gruff, exasperated male voice said.

"I got it. The jade seal of the emperor that supposedly summons one of Shendu's cousins." Jade bragged.

"We're sending a courier to take it - and everything else you took - back to the Section Thirteen vault."

"Everything else I took?" Jade asked innocently as she withdrew a talisman from her pocket.

"All twelve of them." The man sighed.

"Okay... whatever. I'll-" Jade grunted after someone pushed her to the ground, making her drop the emperor's seal. A large silver crucifix dangled in front of her face as her attacker knelt down to pick up the seal.

"I'll be taking this," he said as he grabbed it.

Jade wasn't going to take this lying down. She leapt to her feet and took out a dried puffer fish and pointed it at the guy. "I have seven words for you. Yu mo gui gwaai fie di jao!" A powerful shot of energy burst from the mouth of the fish. When it struck the sparkling white of the guy's clothes, the energy curved and shot off into the sky. She tried again. The energy was deflected into the trees.

"I was hoping that you would have given it up quietly. I take no pleasure in the suffering of others."

"You don't know what you're missing." Jade pointed the fish at the ground and fired. The ground became like liquid and the guy immediately sunk up to his neck. "If you give that back, I might consider helping you out."

"No need. I have all the help I need-

"And he said, 'Come.' And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, 'Lord, save me.' And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, 'O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?'" Immediately he began to rise up. The dirt and mud dropped from his clothes like water rolling off a sheet of glass.

Jade was beginning to worry. This was a tough opponent. She would have run, but he still had the seal. Since her Chi attacks did not seem to work against him, she decided to try the talismans. She wanted to use the dragon talisman, but its effects would surely be recognized. She took hold of the pig talisman and fired heat beams from her eyes. Like the chi blasts, the heat rays just bounced off of him. Next, she tried the ox. Jade swung a super-powered fist at the man.

"Shit!" She swore when her hand shattered upon the impact with his chest. He was unfazed. Blood dripped from her hand where the bones were now sticking out. The pain weakened her and she fell to her knees clutching her injured hand. She reached into her pocket for the horse. In a few moments, her hand had regained its form, but by then, her assailant was right in front of her and had his hand resting gently upon her head.

"And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand; and thou shalt have no more soothsayers: Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands," he said. Jade gasped for air. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't move. She was bathed in a white glow that covered her, penetrated her, and consumed her. Her magical energy was forced out of her until none remained.

He let her go.

"You won't get away with this," Jade gasped weakly. She could barely hold herself up. "Yu... Mo... Gui... Gwaai... Fie... Di... Jao..." She couldn't feel the chi energy flowing. She couldn't see it either. She couldn't see much actually, her vision was blurring. She knew his spell must have done something to her. She had to heal it fast. She reached for the talismans, but all that her hand found was a pile of dust.